Unions are refusing to take part in a pay review process they described as a “total farce” on the latest day of industrial action in the UK’s National Health Service.
(Bloomberg) — Unions are refusing to take part in a pay review process they described as a “total farce” on the latest day of industrial action in the UK’s National Health Service.
Ambulance workers are on strike Wednesday, with the public warned to expect delays if they require emergency services. Labor groups are demanding a steeper pay hike but ministers insist they must abide by recommendations made by the NHS pay review body.
Unions said the review process isn’t independent and announced they would not comply with requests for evidence to feed into calculations toward pay for 2023-24 while a dispute is ongoing over the current year’s deal. They demanded direct talks with ministers over pay levels.
It leaves workers at loggerheads with the government which has said it cannot revisit the 2022-23 pay deal, although Health Secretary Steve Barclay has suggested backdating the next pay award.
Read More: Why Strike-Averse Britain Is Gripped by Labor Unrest (QuickTake)
Unite, which represents health workers including ambulance drivers, called for the NHS pay review body to be abolished entirely. The union’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, called the body a “smokescreen” that has “presided over more than a decade of real wage cuts for almost all NHS staff.”
Fourteen unions, representing more than 1 million NHS workers, said in a statement that the pay review process took too long and urgent decisions were required to “turn the NHS staffing crisis around.”
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